


Discoveries

by JOBrien42



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Background Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25322134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JOBrien42/pseuds/JOBrien42
Summary: Margaret can't seem to get the Santos Campaign Manager on the phone...
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 14
Kudos: 133





	Discoveries

“Margaret!” 

The White House Chief of Staff’s voice had a familiar angry edge to it. While she’d been in this new situation for over a year, there were only a handful of times where CJ seemed to be directly channeling Leo.

She carefully put down the Mueller-Wright mug that Leo had let her keep when he’d taken off on the campaign trail. She stood up, crossed over to the door, knocked once, and poked her head into the office. 

“I need you to get that two-timing, arrogant, deceitful, arrogant, thinks-he-knows-how-to-do-this-job-better-than-I-do Campaign Manager for the President-elect over here right now.”

“CJ, you know you said arrogant twice there,” she pointed out.

“You know I’m asking for Josh Lyman, right?” CJ replied. “He’s not answering his cell. Remind him that we’re still in charge for another two and a half months.”

Margaret smiled, “Yes, ma’am.” She closed the door and returned to her desk, the phone at her ear in an instant.

“Transition office of President-Elect Santos,” answered a youthful voice she did not recognize. “How can I help you?”

“This is the White House Chief of Staff calling for Josh Lyman,” she said smoothly, knowing - and enjoying - what came next. The frantic apology, and then the sound of the person on the other end immediately leaping to connect her call.

“Um,” came the unexpected, hesitant reply. “Mr. Lyman isn’t available right now.”

“I’m sorry?” she said. 

“Mr. Lyman isn’t available,” the man repeated. “I think I can connect you to his deputy?”

She supposed it was possible that he was in with the President-Elect. That, she thought , would be cause enough to be unavailable for the moment. Or he knew CJ was mad and was hiding, but he had learned the futility of that years ago. “Thank you, no,” she said. She had another option.

She dialed Donna’s cell. She would know where Josh was. She was working for Santos now, and no matter what tension had grown between them in the past year, Donna would be keeping tabs on Josh.

“You have reached Donna Moss. I am unable to take your call right now. If this is an emergency, you can reach the Santos Transition office at…”

Margaret hung up, frowning. Donna and Josh both out of touch? That was unheard of. She re-dialed the Transition Office, asking again for Josh, only to be offered his deputy again.

“Please,” she said. Perhaps someone a little higher in the food chain would understand the gravity of the situation.

There was a brief moment of muzak before the line picked up again.

“Sam Seaborn,” the man answered.

“Sam?”

“Yes… Hey, Margaret, is that you?”

“What are you doing here?” she asked. Sam had left politics. Surely she would have heard if that had changed.

“Wow. Thanks for the warm welcome,” Sam said. “I got in yesterday. I couldn’t stay away from the long hours and low pay forever.”

“It’s great that you’re back, really,” she said, genuinely happy to hear that Josh would have someone to rely on the way Leo had.

“Look, Margaret,” Sam began, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to make it last week. I really wanted to be here.”

She blinked. She’d been trying not to think about Leo’s death. “Yeah.”

“I know how much…”

“Sam,” she interrupted him, seeking both to circumvent treading on still raw emotion and accomplish the mission for CJ. “I’d love to catch up and trade stories, but CJ really needs to talk to Josh.”

“He’s not available, Margaret.”

“I don’t know if he’s in with the President Elect right now…”

“I mean it, Margaret, Josh is not available.”

“Sam,” she said patiently, “You haven’t been gone so long that you’ve forgotten how this works. This is the office of the Chief of Staff calling for Josh Lyman, a man who hasn’t been out of touch since he was recovering from being shot.”

“Since he went to Germany,” Sam reminded her.

Margaret’s breath caught in her lungs. “Is he… he’s ok, right? And Donna’s ok? I couldn’t get a hold of her either.”

“The last I looked, they were both doing ok,” Sam said.

“Oh, good. That’s good.” Margaret was flustered. “CJ’s not going to be happy, but can you just have Josh call her as soon as he’s available.”

“Of course.”

“Thank you,” Margaret said with a sigh.

“I’ll make sure Josh calls first thing when he gets back next week.”

“That would be per- what? Next week?”

“That’s my understanding, yes,” Sam said, somewhat smugly.

“Josh Lyman is going to be unavailable. For a week. During Transition.” Margaret found the whole idea of that incomprehensible. It violated the natural order of the cosmos.

“My coming to work for him was contingent on him going on vacation, ” Sam explained. “He saw the wisdom of my proposal, and he should be landing in Hawaii in an hour or two.”

A thought occurred to her. “And would Donna also be on vacation?”

“You know, to the best of my understanding, she is also taking some time off, yes.”

“That’s an interesting coincidence,” Margaret said. “Wouldn’t you say?”

“Not really,” Sam said, “I’d say it’s about time.”

“Me too,” Margaret said, finding herself grinning. “Well, since Josh isn’t available, it looks like you have the honor of talking with CJ.”

“Lucky me,” Sam’s voice was slightly pained.

“Please hold for the Chief of Staff,” she said brightly. Her fingers danced over the phone’s buttons. “CJ, I have the Santos campaign on line three.”

She could hear through CJ’s door that the aggressive tone she’d prepared to intimidate Josh had turned to surprise.

“BOTH OF THEM? AND SHE DIDN’T TELL ME?”

Margaret smiled again. She took a sip of tea from her mug. Somewhere, she knew, Leo was smiling too.

**Author's Note:**

> I saw that starbuckmeggie had posted her wonderful response to the "Finding Out" prompt, so I figured I'd throw mine up here too.


End file.
